On development perspectives of pre-trial proceedings in the Russian criminal procedure

Pre-trial proceedings are currently the most discussed part of criminal proceedings. In the science of the criminal procedure in this regard, two main directions have been formed. One group of authors argue for the need to completely abandon the current pre-trial proceedings design. In their opinion, it is necessary to completely abandon the procedural regulation of activities to verify the statement or report of the crime, and to more actively include the adversariality principle in the preliminary investigation. Others, on the contrary, believe that the current model of pre-trial proceedings, based on a two-stage pre-trial proceedings design, the procedural regulation of the criminal case initiation and the fundamental importance of the preliminary investigation, has not yet exhausted the potential for its modernisation, and may well be included in the needs of the modern criminal procedure. The authors of the article proceed from the second position, and propose a model of pre-trial proceedings in a criminal case which solves a number of problems that the law enforcer currently has. Firstly, the model fills the stage of initiating a criminal case with a new content by giving it a number of tasks that are harmoniously integrated into the tasks of criminal proceedings in general, without overlapping the tasks of the preliminary investigation. Secondly, the model resolves the eternal problem of the correlation between the preliminary investigation and inquiry by abolishing inquiry and providing for a really simplified (shortened, summary), but effective form of preliminary investigation. Thirdly, the figure of the investigator in this model acquires the value of an independent and, most importantly, responsible participant in criminal proceedings, whose decisions would directly influence the further development of criminal proceedings. Finally, the model is based on the revival of a full-fledged mechanism for prosecutor's supervision over the procedural activity of the preliminary investigation body.

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